Posted: Thursday, 28 May 2009 10:23AM Pickens On Mackinac: Natural Gas Plus Wind Equals Less Foreign Oil Texas oilman and former corporate raider and Republican financier T. Boone Pickens brought his plan to slash the United States' dependence on foreign oil to the Mackinac Policy Conference Thursday and seemed to find a mostly receptive audience. In remarks immediately following Gov. Jennifer Granholm's energy remarks. Pickens criticized the United States for not having an energy plan for 40 years, and ever-increasing percentages of American oil being imported from overseas. But he said there had been little leadership on changing that because until recently, "we had cheap oil. Consequently America was never tasked to look at what would happen if it was cut off from us." When it comes to oil, Pickens said, "at some point we are going to have to face the fact that we are the problem." He said the United States uses 25 percent of the world's oil, despite only having 4 percent of the world's population and 3 percent of its oil reserves, and needs to get its "appetite in line with the rest of the world." Pickens also pointed out that America is importing its oil from America-hating nations. "We are importing oil from Venezuela, and we hear what that guy says about us. Yet we need his oil, one million barrels a day. The Mideast, I don't know who there likes us, dislikes us or hate us, there are countries in all three categories but I would guess not so many like us." Pickens' solution? A major push toward wind power, along with transforming America's vehicle fleet to electric and compressed natural gas power, along with clean coal and nuclear power. "I'm for anything that's American," Pickens said. "What your governor is talking about, I'm on board." Pickens said America has abundant natural gas becuase it has developed technology that can convert carboniferous shale into natural gas. It's also easy to convert vehicles, combining to make "a window of opportunity that we cannot pass up." He said that without changes, America within 10 years will be importing 75 percent of its oil at $300 a barrel. "That will solve two problems for us, health care and education," Pickens said. "If we spend that much on oil you won't be able to do anything about either one of them." In a question and answer session with Gov. Granholm and WDIV news anchor Devin Scillian, Pickens joked that he's rather be remembered "as an oil man rather than a gas man or a wind man," but said that mainly he's a geologist (his degree is in that field from Oklahoma State University). And Granholm said that tomorrow's energy supplies will be a combination of a wide variety of sources, incuding 20 to 30 percent wind power, solar and traditional sources. © MMIX WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved.  To subscribe or visit go to:  http://www.wwj.com